The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1887-03-10

hands of an able general and who has
| acquired an intimate and complete
knowledge of what these two contending
American armies were really like will, I
think, agree that from first to last the
cooperation of even one army corps of
regular troops would have given COM
plete victory to whichever side it fought
| on"
| AT ANTIETAM.
Lord Wolseley says that Lee told him
that he had only 10000. men in front of
Mcclellan at Antietam, with few tired
reserves behind, while Mcclellan had an
army of 10000 men. He states that
Lee always spoke we'll of Mcclellan,
though he spoke bitterly of none of his
Federal opponents. In his reference to
the thirty-fve days fighting around
Richmond just before the surrender at
Appomattox, Wolseley says: "Lee had
only $4,000 exhausted soldiers to op-
! pose 100, 900 fresh men under General
Grant"
In speaking of the faults of General
Lee he says: Gone of them was too
great dread of wounding the feelings Of
| others, which lead him to leave incom-
potent men to fill important positions.
This softness of heart or a1niability,
however good in itself, may amount to
crime in the man intrusted with public
affairs at critical moments. Lees devo-
ton to duty and great respect for obedi-
ence seems at times to have made him
too subservient to those charged with the
civil government of his country. He
carried out too literally the orders of
those whom the Confederate constitu-
tlon made his superiors, although he
must have known them to be entirely
ignorant of the science of war. He ap-
pears to have forgotten that he was the
great revolutionary chief, engaged in
great revolutionary war; that no was no
mere leader in a political struggle of
parties carried on within the lines of an
old, well established form of govern
ment. 1t was very clear to many ut the
time, as 1T will be commonly acknowl-
edged now, that the South could only
hope to win under the rule of military
dictator. If General Washington had
had Mr.. Davis over him, could he
have accomplished what he did? ItI
Will, am sure, be news to many that
General Lee was given the command
over all the Confederate armies month
OF two only before the final collapse,
aud that the military policy of the South
was throughout the war dictated by Mr..
Davis as President of the Confederate
states Lee had no power to reward
soldiers or to promote officers. It was
Mr.. Davis who selected the mon to COM
mnnd divisions and armies. Is it to be
supposed that Cromwell, King William
LII, Washington or Napoleon could
have succeeded i'll tho revolutions with
which their names are identified, had
they submitted to the will and authority
OF politician as Lee did to Mr. Dayis?"
DEFENSE OF RICHMOND.
Lord Wolseley says that "Gcneral Lee
was opposed to the defense of Richmond
at the last, and that he was right, for if
he had drawn General Grants army into
the interior far away from its base of
supplies, he would have greatly weak
cned 1t. But it were vain to speculate.
Richmond fell and Lees army surren-
derCd. Who shall ever fathom the depth
OF Lees anguish when the bitter end
came, and whe1, beaten down by sheer
fofce OF numbers and by absolutely
nothing else, he found himself Obliged
to surrender? Tho handful Of starving
men remaining with him laid down their
arms and the proud Confederacy ceased
to be: Surely the crushing, maddening
anguish OF awful sorrow is only known
10 the leader, who has so failed to ac-
complsh some lofty, some noble aim for
which he has long striven with might
and main, with heart and soul in the in
terests of king or of country. A smiling
lace, cheerful manner may conceal the
sore place from the eyes, possibly even
from the knowledge of his friends, but
there is no healing for such wound
which eats into the very heart of him
who has once received it.
AN ESTIMATE OF LEE.
The article closes with this enthusias-
tic estimate of the Confederate chieftain:
''When all the angry feelings reused by
the secession are buried with those which
existed when the declaration of indie
pendence was written; when Americans
can review the history of their last great
rebellion with calm impartiaity, / be-
heve all will admit that General Lee
lowered far above all men on either side
IN that struggle. / believe he will be
regarded not only as the most prominent
figure OF the Confederacy, but as tho
great American of the nineteenth centu-
ry, whose statue is we'll worthy to stand
on an equal pedestal with that of Wash
lngton, and whose memory is equally
worthy to be enshrined in the hearts Of
all his countrymen."
Good Rules to Follow.
L